Hello all.
I have a 99 Corolla with a mere 88K original miles. Has been an outstanding car with hardly any problems when I passed it on to my college aged son after his Tracer died. He drove it to Salt Lake City from Corvallis OR, after I had done a major tune up on it. It looked and drove like a million bucks!!
He had it there maybe six weeks and boom... collided with a Harley Davidson in an intersection. Thankfully no one was hurt, and despite having the motorcyclist cited for failure to yield, the small claims judge ruled that each was equally at fault, so no financial settlement was seen.
The car itself was evaluated by a local body shop who stopped at a $4K estimate to repair... so it is technically "totaled."
Despite significant damage to the body, the only mechanical damage was a cracked battery which was promptly replaced.
That was almost exactly 1 year ago. The car continued to run well despite looking like it came out of a demolition derby.
My son needed to come home to Corvallis to continue his studies so in August, I went out to SLC in order to evaluate the car to see if it would be wise to attempt the journey. Despite dire warnings to the contrary, I decided it was up to the challenge.
My son for all his attributes, is mechanically "challenged". Oil level was low, tires were almost flat, and to make matters worse, he had a run in with a car port pillar which caused even more superficial damage.
I spent the day changing the oil, filling the tires, and doing a once over on my once prized Corolla. It then got loaded up (and I mean PACKED) with left over apartment stuff and took off in the wee hours towards home.
My wife, son, and his dog were to follow later in the day so as to give me time to deal with what I assumed would be, inevitable breakdowns following the cars treatment over the last 10 months.
Nothing could be more to the contrary. After a couple hours on the road keeping it at 60 mph, I set the cruise to 70 and never looked back. Not even a hiccup from this car on the whole 1200 mile journey.
What amazed me the most is that I made it from SLC to Boise on a single tank of fuel. I managed 41 mpg with it packed to the gills!
Once we got home, I swapped cars with him since no self respecting 24 year old could hope to pick up girls in this banged up Corolla. Instead he is driving my "sporty" '96 Neon, which in my humble opinion, is a much under appreciated car.
So being a good dad, I have resigned myself that it is my lot in life to continually maintain the beater cars in my family, satisfied with the knowledge that I'm keeping one less car from a premature entry to the scrap yard.
I have a 99 Corolla with a mere 88K original miles. Has been an outstanding car with hardly any problems when I passed it on to my college aged son after his Tracer died. He drove it to Salt Lake City from Corvallis OR, after I had done a major tune up on it. It looked and drove like a million bucks!!
He had it there maybe six weeks and boom... collided with a Harley Davidson in an intersection. Thankfully no one was hurt, and despite having the motorcyclist cited for failure to yield, the small claims judge ruled that each was equally at fault, so no financial settlement was seen.
The car itself was evaluated by a local body shop who stopped at a $4K estimate to repair... so it is technically "totaled."
Despite significant damage to the body, the only mechanical damage was a cracked battery which was promptly replaced.
That was almost exactly 1 year ago. The car continued to run well despite looking like it came out of a demolition derby.
My son needed to come home to Corvallis to continue his studies so in August, I went out to SLC in order to evaluate the car to see if it would be wise to attempt the journey. Despite dire warnings to the contrary, I decided it was up to the challenge.
My son for all his attributes, is mechanically "challenged". Oil level was low, tires were almost flat, and to make matters worse, he had a run in with a car port pillar which caused even more superficial damage.
I spent the day changing the oil, filling the tires, and doing a once over on my once prized Corolla. It then got loaded up (and I mean PACKED) with left over apartment stuff and took off in the wee hours towards home.
My wife, son, and his dog were to follow later in the day so as to give me time to deal with what I assumed would be, inevitable breakdowns following the cars treatment over the last 10 months.
Nothing could be more to the contrary. After a couple hours on the road keeping it at 60 mph, I set the cruise to 70 and never looked back. Not even a hiccup from this car on the whole 1200 mile journey.
What amazed me the most is that I made it from SLC to Boise on a single tank of fuel. I managed 41 mpg with it packed to the gills!
Once we got home, I swapped cars with him since no self respecting 24 year old could hope to pick up girls in this banged up Corolla. Instead he is driving my "sporty" '96 Neon, which in my humble opinion, is a much under appreciated car.
So being a good dad, I have resigned myself that it is my lot in life to continually maintain the beater cars in my family, satisfied with the knowledge that I'm keeping one less car from a premature entry to the scrap yard.